Mortuary strike backlog 'to be resolved in three days'
Gauteng's mortuaries have an autopsy backlog of around 150 people following an almost month-long strike by forensic pathology officers.
Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa briefed the media yesterday in Johannesburg to announce that the strike has officially ended and everyone has been back at work since Wednesday.
There are 188 forensic pathology officers working in 11 facilities throughout the province and since the strike began, many post-mortems have not been done - in many cases causing the families to postpone the funeral or pay for the services themselves.
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Ramokgopa says the workers' concerns were genuine and subsequently an agreement has been reached.
"These issues include salary scales that were not in line with the Gauteng Department of Health, danger allowance, reintroduction of debriefing sessions, provision of equipment and protective clothing, revised job descriptions, special allowance for dissection and evisceration," says Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa says their teams are now hard at work to expedite the backlog.
"With officers back at work, we are confident that over a period of three days these backlogs will have been dealt with," says Ramokgopa.